Are you good enough? It doesn’t matter.

One of the "traditions" that some of us participate in is the 'New Year's Resolution.' These resolutions usually have to do with getting healthier or becoming a better person in someway or a commitment to a good work. If I were to hazard a guess 99.9% of us usually fail at some point in the new year in fulfilling our resolutions. The worst part of this resolution businesses is that we set our selves up for failure because we set a bar that cannot be attained or maintained. This is also true for those who follow Jesus.

Many feel that to be a follower of Jesus that we must be good enough or work toward some form of perfection in our doing of good works.

In the Lutheran tradition there is a saying, “You do good works because God loves you. You do not do good works so that God loves you.”

A few years back a parishioner and I had a long conversation about God. Specifically, the question was, how can God love a guy like me? Because I knew this individual I knew that the real question was, am I good enough?

We can strive all our lives to be “good enough” and we would fail. That is just the plain truth of the matter. We will fail because we never meet our own standards. We will fail because we do not think we live up to a mother or father’s perceived standard. We will fail, because, quite frankly we can never be perfect.

So where does that leave us in our relationship with God?

Pretty much where we should be - at God’s mercy.

The problem? This is just not acceptable to many of us. We want to be in control, we want to be the authors of our own destiny. In a television show called “Heroes” there is a character that can paint the future. The question being asked with this particular gift is “can we change the future? Can we make perfect what we perceive to be imperfect?” Can we force what we think is perfection onto a world that is in chaos? Can we force our own lives to be perfect even if we are imperfect?

Of course the answer to these questions is no. We are not masters of space, time and dimension. We are not even masters of our selves. We are slaves to our own shortcomings and desires. Again we are at God’s mercy.

In the Christian Church we celebrate the end of Christmas with a day we call Epiphany. It falls on the twelfth day of Christmas, January 6th.  It is a day that we remember the revealing of Jesus as the Son of God. This epiphany, or aha moment, opens for us the reality of being at the mercy of God's judgement. Can we ever stand before God justified without the forgiving work of this one, the messiah, the one who takes away the sin of the world? Of course not. We are good enough, because of the love and work of God through Jesus. Jesus first loves us so much, that he took away our sin.

That is the answer to my brother in faith who struggled with the question of whether he was good enough in God’s eyes. God is good enough for all of us … enough to die for us; as a friend would lay down his life for a friend. Because God is good enough for all of us we can know that we are no longer slaves to ourselves and the world’s expectations of perfection. We are set free from that worry so that we can go out in the world to share this Good News. This new year let us be reminded that we do good works because our God is willing to come down to hang out with us.

This brother of faith died not long ago. He died without the worry of whether he was perfect enough. He died with the not so secret knowledge that God is good, all the time.

The Blue of Advent

As a child we used to play a game called “kick-the-can.” Many of you remember this game and some in our congregation I am sure still play it. It us a game that can be played almost anywhere and at any time. All that is needed is a group of willing bodies and a can; and plenty of places to run and hide.

There is a certain time that is always best for the game. It was the time when light bled into dark; that in-between time of day. When we played “kick-the-can” we would start after school. Hiking up into the back part of my parent’s property, where the trees grew closer together, we would set up the boundaries. By the time the rules were discussed voted on, vetoed, renegotiated, reviewed, corrected and finally adopted the sun began its descent. A player was chosen to be “it” first and the rest of us would scatter into the woods, trying our best to melt into our surroundings.

While playing this game I made a decision about my favorite color. Hiding among the sword ferns, just to the north of a tree, trying not to breathe too loud, I looked down the hill out over Lake Sammamish to the west. The sun had just set and the cool of the night air settled in. The sky had changed from that pale-water-color-blue to that dark-not-quite-night-blue. I remember crouching there soaking in that color like it was manna for tomorrow. It soon disappeared like all flitting, holy, thin places do, but that experience will always be with me. The color reminded me so much of what it meant to know that I was of this world; that just my witnessing that particular moment said that God was alive. But then I was on the move, having heard the crackle of sticks under boot.

That blue that I remember filled me with what I like to call Advent-Hope-Blue. When I first learned abut the meaning of the colors of the Church year in confirmation, I connected this memory with quiet times and hope for peace. Waiting there in the sword ferns I felt connected all at once with the world and my creator God. As I learned more about this God from the community that raised me in the faith, I built on this memory. I have come to understand that Advent is a time for renewal and anticipation. It is a good time to reflect on life and community; to share with those around me the hope we have in this returning Christ. The Blue of Advent is a color that reminds us of the hope we have in a God who loved us so much that he sent his son to earth in the form of the must vulnerable of individuals, a baby.

As I wait and watch this Advent season my prayer is that you will find time to worship each Sunday leading up to Christmas. That you find time each day to be still and quiet. This is a time away from a culture that does not want you to wait but demands that you rush, rush, rush. God wants us to be quiet at this time of year; to slow down and to meditate on his Word; to be enveloped in the blue of the season; to be given new hope and new courage.

The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High … Luke 1:30-32